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tim1953

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Everything posted by tim1953

  1. Wow such a novel idea... :) Now I bet every company is gonna pickup on that one. :lol:
  2. And for the sake of the quality of audio, music and guitar sounds let's hope they learn how to listen so they can know for themselves the difference between good and bad sound - MP3s and three inch speakers should not be the benchmark by which you judge audio.
  3. Not only have zero amount of the ideas posted on Ideascale been used, many of the long reported bugs have not been fixed. So I guess I have answered my own question...waste of time.
  4. This forum is a perfect place to measure failure rate since most people complaining here haven't gotten any good results from tech support so they come here as a last ditch effort to get their problem solved before they give up. The next good place to check is Ebay & Craig's List - there you can see all the Line 6 stuff being sold by unhappy users - and there are thousands of them. The sad thing is Line 6 has a lot of good ideas but they never seem to follow through to make the product complete. Bugs always seem to be left unfixed in lots of cases before they finally stop production and move on to the next idea. The Variax, the HD 500, the Relay wireless all have on going issues that have never been addressed. Tracking glitches, software that doesn't work properly, faulty battery compartment doors, etc., etc. We took our hard earned money and bought this gear and I think Line 6 owes it to us to fix these and other issues (add yours here). For instance I shouldn't have to use duct tape to keep the freakin' batteries from falling out on the floor every time I use the Relay wireless. Line 6 should find a fix and make replacement parts available for a reasonable fee or free. Just because you personally don't have these issues that doesn't make them any less real for us who do.
  5. I've had some nights that the HD 500, Variax & Relay Wireless worked well and just when I started to feel comfortable with it one of them would F!@ up again. One show where I was patched directly into the front of the house the volume just kept dropping until I could not hear what I was playing - I rebooted and it fixed it. I had to get on my hands and knees with the crowd watching reaching to pull out the wall wart and plug it back in (thanks Line 6 for not including an on/off switch). And when you turn it back on it pops through the sound system. I just can't take those computer style digital glitches that happen when you least expect it. My motto has become give a computer the chance and it will F!@ you every time.
  6. Oh great 2 HD 500s screwing up at the same time... :rolleyes: No thanks on that one.
  7. The HD 500 and the Variax are cool ideas that when they work properly they sound pretty good. Problem is they both are buggy and a pro can't trust them in front of 20,000 plus fans night after night and that's why you very rarely see them on stage - never mind the fact that they don't sound as good as the real thing. The Variax since the first models have had Piezo problems that cause weird tracking issues. I also have had the Variax change patches on me during a performance. Going from open G tuning back to standard tuning was not cool and I felt like a lollipop when it happened. Sometimes the Variax just stops working. Unplugging and plugging it back in usually fixes the problem but it resets to a default sound. Same thing with the HD 500 sometimes it just stops working and you have to reboot it. It's computer glitches that a musician doesn't have time to deal with on stage. If a tube goes down on stage it's an easy fix most of the time. To be honest I've played thousands of gigs using tube amps for 40 years and have only had 2 amps go down on me during a show. One was a 60s Fender blackface Showman amp that caught on fire - which looked cool and the crowd got to see it. The other was a 60s Fender Bandmaster that lost a power tube. I just don't have very much confidence in digital gear when it comes to playing live. Same way with a lot of the digital keyboard stuff. I worry nightly that the stuff might screw up on me and ruin the show. True - anything can blow up - but the digital stuff is more likely to let you down. Rebooting 3 or 4 times a night is not cool and not something I'm willing to do.
  8. Dude sorry. I didn't mean it as an insult. Although I've been insulted several times over the past 3 years by a line 6 expert or two because they didn't agree with a few of my complaints so they blew them off as nonsense. Actually I was just asking how someone becomes a Line 6 Expert - what qualifies a person as one. I think that's a fair question since a lot of people come here to ask questions. Sorry and since you took it as an insult I'll remove it.
  9. I know the so called Line 6 experts will trash this but I agree with Scheater5. Hasn't been much action on the Variax forum lately - could very well be that it's becoming another dead in the water product. Chances are the HD 500 is heading there too. By the way how do you become a Line 6 expert.
  10. This thread as shown on the home page of this section of the forum.
  11. 0 views and no replies? Wow yesterday it was listed as hot topic and now no views. Nice way to shut us up... :)
  12. Just wondering has any of the requests/suggestions made up on Ideascale ever been added to any Line 6 product? As far as the HD 500 or Variax goes I haven't seen any so it leads me to wonder if it's worth the trouble posting there or is it just a waste of time. This post isn't to bash Line 6 - I'm just a curious customer.
  13. I don't use the tuner in the Pod - I tried it and it doesn't fine tune enough for me. I still use a strobe tuner - quicker and more accurate.
  14. You are pretty much saying what I said. If the HD 500 or Variax works for someone that's great and by all means use it. I use it on smaller gigs and it works for that. As far as assuming that the goal is to sound exactly like the amp - well that's Line 6s fault. They are the ones that put pictures in their owners manual of the amps they model which leads the consumer to believe that they worked for years to get the model to sound just like the real thing. Model names like Class A 30 with a picture of a Vox ac 30 under the title or Blackface 'Lux with a Fender Deluxe next to it - what else could the consumer possibly think? It's like anything else that uses samples or models - when you first hear it you think wow they really nailed it this time. I'm sure that after Line 6 developed the HD 500 they we're excited and thought the same thing. But after you work with it for a while you start to hear it's weaknesses and that starts to annoy you. I've had that happen to me repeatedly over the past 25 years with keyboards based on sampling. At first I'm blown away but in a while I hear the faults and before too long I'm ready for another keyboard - it's an endless cycle that sucks your wallet dry after a while. The only thing that keeps me using the sampling is that I don't want to carry around an acoustic piano, B3 organ and leslie - my balls can't take it anymore!
  15. I think if it works for you - use it. But it's kind of worthless talking about a hand full of players using this modeling stuff when 99% of all touring musicians in every type of music still use and prefer to use real amps, real pedals and real guitars. They have the budget and it's their choice to use what they use. If modeling was up to snuff more guys would surely be using it and this is not to knock Line 6 or modelling in general. But facts are facts most of us who've had the chance to use both prefer real amps and pedals. I use my HD 500 for my duo gig where most of the time space doesn't allow me to use my full rig. Certain things work fine but other things are a struggle. No way the modelled effects work the same way as the real pedals. Each month I seem to be adding more of my real pedals to the rig to the point that I'm almost not using any of the modelled pedals at all. I have lots of the pedals they modelled - Butler Tube Driver, compressors, flangers, phasers, echos, reverbs, etc. they do not respond to the player's touch or the guitar's pickups the same way. They also don't drive the HD 500 amps the same way as the real thing so all those subtile tones are lost. The Variax Rickenbacker 12 string model through the HD 500 Vox AC 30 model is never going to be a serious contender for a real Rick 12 and Vox AC 30 - not even remotely close. The HD 500 is a usuable tool for certain things but let's not try to fool ourselves into believing that its ever going to replace the traditional rig in most instances. As time goes on the younger guys will get use to the sound of digital and many more will use the modelling stuff but that doesn't mean it will sound better. In this day of crappy MP3 files many of the younger guys aren't even aware how much better the hi-def, hi sample/bit rate stuff sounds. All they know is that they can fit 10,000 songs on a player that will fit in their shirt pocket. But I do trust that there will be enough guys out there that will seek out and find the best sound no matter how big or costly it might be.
  16. Yep - clean and the sounds between totally clean and over the top distortion is where it doesn't get it.
  17. I use The El Capistan delay pedal with the HD 500 but it is between the guitar and HD 500. I like to have my hands on the delay's controls and none of the delay's in the HD 500 can touch it. I use a TECH 21 British pedal in the effects loop because it has a better Marshall sound than the HD 500. To be honest I don't really care much for any of the effects in the HD 500. Maybe because I have a lot of really nice pedals and I'm just use to their sound.
  18. Actually that's only half right. It depends on how deep you listen to the sounds in the recording. I agree that in the frame work of a recording some modelled sounds are hard to pick out - most of the time it's the over the top distorted sounds that are already smashed down by compression. Clean sounds are easier to tell the difference. There's always a clue that gives it away. Mostly dynamics when the player goes from a light picking to really digging in hard on the instrument - modelling doesn't deal with that style of playing as well as a real amp. The analog front end on the HD 500 always gives it away because it clips out when you push it too hard and it's not the same kind of clipping that a tube amp does - it's more of a transistor over load sound which is added to the modelled sound. It's the same way with sampled strings, horns and piano sounds. It can fool a lot of listeners but I doubt you'll fool a top notch horn, string, or piano player. I don't think Elton John will give up his baby grand for a digital piano. It's all the little things that are left out of the model or sample.
  19. I tried to get my point across in the "done" thread when I said "A real amp in a room is just too complex of a sound to capture with modeling". The sound changes each time you move the mike 1 inch in any direction. Also all mics sound different even if they are the same model and brand. The room the amp is in affects the sound. But even before that happens the way each guitar drives the amp will have a major affect on the tone & distortion levels. There is so much interaction that happens between the guitar and amp you select. Every little change in volume, pick attack, the amount of preamp drive, power amp drive, transformer & speaker interaction, etc. affects the sound. It's just impossible to capture all of that in a snap shot of sound. I don't think anyone can even know of or think of all the variations that happen with a players touch, the guitar and amp. Even if they did I don't think the CPU in the HD 500 is capable of storing all that information. It's actually truely amazing that modeling an amp works at all. If you've never had a chance to play through great amps you might not notice all the subtile differences between a modelled amp and the real thing. If you get a chance to play them side by side like I have you find out quickly that there's a world of difference. When I first got my HD 500 3 years ago the first thing I did when I got it home was canned all the presets - they pretty much suck and are unusable in a normal gig situation. Almost all the patches have too much ear candy that doesn't work on the average song. I spent the next few days with my HD 500 plugged into the JBL Eons that I use for my duo gig. I had the rig set up next to my real AC 30, AC 15, Fender Deluxe and Marshall 800 and built my own presets. I went back and forth tweaking the HD 500 until I got close to the sound of the real amps. I realized that (for what ever reason) my amps sounded better than the modelled ones in the HD 500. It doesn't respond to touch, dynamics and guitar volume control changes like a real amp. The HD 500 sounds good enough to fool the average listener but it will never replace the real amps. When my full band goes out on the road again I will be taking out the Fender and Vox amps like I always did in the past. This is not a knock on Line 6 or the HD 500. It does a pretty good job for my duo gig and that's the reason I bought it in the first place. I surely didn't need another amp since I'm totally happy with my real amps. It's just not practical trying to fit my traditional amp rig in the space that is given to my duo on most of our gigs. I'm sure a lot of players can relate to that.
  20. tim1953

    Done

    So I guess by now it's already been drop-loaded to Poo-Tube...
  21. tim1953

    Done

    Dude I didn't say Smart phones were junk. I just don't want to spend my days being a slave to them. I'm tired of going out in the public and all you see is people looking down at a freakin phone. Not paying any attention to what's going on around them. Talking loud and not caring how it affects anyone around them. And God forbid if they ever leave home without it or the battery goes dead - they act as if the world is going to end. I don't want to do my work on an Iphone - I have laptops and desktops for that. I don't need to listen to crappy MP3 files - I have thousands of dollars of great audio gear for that. I don't need a camera in my phone - I have awesome cameras for that. I don't need a GPS cause I don't want the freakin government tracking me everywhere I go. I don't need people texting me or calling me while I'm at a concert or a ballgame or at dinner or a movie - nothing's the important. Why would I want to watch a movie on a midget screen and listen to audio on $h!tty ear buds when I have large hi-def tvs with JBL surround sound - that's not my idea of entertainment - it's a joke to me to be looking at a 3 inch screen all freakin day. Life's so much more fun without all the distractions that cell phones create. Finally I don't like having one piece of equipment that I have to depend on for everything I do - if it gets lost or breaks down you're f$$ked.
  22. tim1953

    Done

    You are absolutely correct. You wouldn't believe how much time is wasted these days in the studio trying to select between different patches on keyboards, on drum modules and now on modeling amps. It's a big waste of time and I long for the days when a good group of musicians would come in, set up their drums & guitar rigs and just freakin' play! It's not rocket science but some musicians these days are acting like it is. My advice to them - pay less attention to all the toys and spent more time on your song writing and playing skills.
  23. tim1953

    Done

    Smartphones are just another toy. Funny thing is they call them phones and they're suppose to be smart but the worst thing they do is phone calls. Wow you pay $200 or more for a phone and they drop the signal just like an old $25 phone from years past and spend half the time charging them - no thanks. In terms of function & dependability they still can't compete with a land line phone. I happen to be one of those people who is bothered by latency, bad timing and bad tuning. When I work in the studio if I'm doing a project where the customer wants the snare drum replaced I have to do it manually because I hear flams when those drum replacement programs drop the new snare drum. If I zoom in close I can see it too so I know I'm not just imagining it. Digital drums affect a lot of drummers because the feel is created by a small bit of lag or jumping of the beat. In that case even a few ms can mess up the feel of a song - sounds like a drum machine - stiff and lifeless. Latency is real and it is a problem. You can hear it when you walk through the TV department of Wal Mart or Best Buy. All the TVs processing the sound with different amounts of latency. You can't hear that? It drives me nuts and I can't stand playing music when that's happening. That said I have no problem using new technology. I use it all the time in the studio but I use it for what it can do when the situation calls for it. Like editing a song (much faster and easier on the computer than with a grease pencil and razor blades). What I have a problem with is when people try to replace the tried and true old stuff. When they try to convince people that it's just as good as the real thing. Well that's just a sales pitch and a bunch of bull$H!t!
  24. tim1953

    Done

    Yes in a scientific sense you may be accurate but when we talk in terms of hearing we use the term dimensional to describe space. Forward, behind us, to the left or the right. That space is what's missing in modeling. They try to put it back with digital effects like reverb & multi-tap delays, and EQ to simulate the tone of different guitar cabinets but it's not the same. A real amp in a room is just too complex of a sound to capture with modeling. That's why some guitar players don't feel comfortable using a modeling amp. Then there's the problem of latency which makes it feel like the guitar is not responding to your touch the same way. It doesn't bother lots of players but the ones who are more sensitive to timing can feel it. Even today's best recordings don't capture the whole picture of sound. Classical musicians almost always prefer a live performance over a recorded one for that reason. A modeling amp can work in a lot of settings because the audio clues are often masked by other sounds. It's the same with sampled sounds on keyboards - pianos, strings, etc. They work in the frame work of a song with other instruments. When they are played solo is where you really start to hear the difference. Otherwise tube amps, real guitars & acoustic pianos would have been replaced with samples and modeling by now - after all sampling has been around for nearly 40 years. After all this time it sounds better but not real.
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